Especially in the case of oil and gas drilling by means of a drilling rig a plurality of drill rod elements is required to reach great drilling depths. The drill rod elements are stored in large numbers in a drill rod store on the drilling rig. By means of a handling system the drill rod elements are removed and connected to the drill string along a drill mast. By means of a drill drive the drill string is driven further into the ground by the length of the newly added drill rod element. Afterwards, a further drill rod element is removed from the drill rod store and added to the drill string. This is repeated until a desired drilling depth has been reached.
From EP 1 746 247 A2 a drilling rig with a drill rod store is known which has a horizontal storage area for the drill rod elements. Here, the drill rod elements are stored lying horizontally next to each other.
To remove a single drill rod element a first drill rod element is raised, thereby allowing it to roll along a rail to a receiving lever. By pivoting the receiving lever the drill rod element is placed into a trough-shaped receiving part. From there the drill rod element can be received by the handling system, pivoted into a vertical position and added to the drill string.
A similar drilling rig with a comparable drill rod store is known from US 2007/0031215 A1.
Furthermore, from US 2006/0045655 A1 a drilling rig with a drill rod store can be taken, in which the drill rods are also arranged in horizontal alignment next to each other in a storage area. To remove a single drill rod element a pivot lever with a concave recess is provided, which is adapted to the cylindrical shape of the drill rod element. By lowering the pivot lever a drill rod element can thus roll into the concave recess. Afterwards, the pivot lever is pivoted by approximately 90° from a horizontal starting position into a vertical starting position. In this position the drill rod element can roll from the concave recess of the pivot lever into a trough-shaped receiving part, from which the drill rod element is supplied via the handling system to the drill string on the drill mast.